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Also among this week's comics...
CAPER #3 - This is Judd
Winick's historical series about Jewish gangsters, which
admittedly is a somewhat tough sell. Still, it's Judd
Winick, and you'd have thought that would result in it doing
somewhat better than the lacklustre sales it's seen so far.
So I'm going to remind you again: this is a great little
series, far better than anything Winick did on Exiles.
Really good storytelling from Winick and artist Farel
Dalrymple, and it certainly transcends any idea of gimmickry.
Go and buy it. A
MARVELOUS ADVENTURES OF GUS
BEEZER AND SPIDER-MAN #1 - Uh, haven't we already had one
of these? Anyway, this is a belated fourth Gus Beezer
one-shot. And since writer Gail Simone has now signed an
exclusive deal with DC, it'll presumably be the last.
Same format, but this time round Simone is joined by artist
Gurihiro, who has more of a conventional animation style.
It's still a good fit for the material, and while some of the
superhero pastiche is going back to decades-old material -
Marvel haven't actually dealt in breathless alliterative
narration in some years - it's all good fun. A-
PLANETARY #18 - Surely
not? An actual issue of Planetary? Why, at
some point I must go back to read the earlier issues and try
to remember what the hell the plot was about. Because a
fair chunk of this issue is quietly advancing the plot, and
I'm sure I'd enjoy it more if I could remember a damn thing
about Planetary. The rest is a nice little idea
about the Victorians launching a moon shot and not quite
making it. It could have used more development, but
Cassaday's art, and the sense of relics, carries it through.
It's all hugely decompressed, of course - five silent pages of
a capsule landing? - and given how rarely Planetary
comes out, you really wish something more actually happened in
each issue. But then, Planetary exists to be in
trade paperbacks, as do most of Warren Ellis's books.
Taking it in that spirit, the good outweighs the irritation.
B+
On Monday, there's a new Article 10 at
Ninth Art.
In more of Marvel's irritating stop-start
scheduling, this week's drought is followed by a deluge of
eight X-books next week, accounting for more than half of
Marvel's output.
New X-Men #151 kicks off the final
Grant Morrison arc. Uncanny X-Men #437 sees the
return of Salvador Larroca. Let's hope it's a short one,
because he's only going to be around as long as Chuck is.
Talking of Chuck Austen, there's also Exiles #40, the
final part of "King Hyperion." Mystique #9
continues "Tinker Tailor Mutant Spy", Sentinel #11 is
the penultimate issue, Weapon X #16 continues the
defection storyline, Wolverine: The End #2 has another
go at impressing me, and X-Treme X-Men #39 continues
the Arena storyline.
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